Two large fires keep O'side crews busy

Two fires reported less than 40 minutes apart kept Oceanside crews and their brethren from neighboring departments hopping Tuesday night.

No one was hurt in either blaze, but hundreds of people were evacuated briefly as crews tackled flames.

The first fire left three condominiums at a Pacific Street complex uninhabitable, and the second blaze destroyed a warehouse on the city’s north end.

The condominium fire, reported just after 7:45 p.m., occurred near Oceanside Harbor and was started by an electrical fire in a ceiling fan/electrical light in a first floor unit, fire Battalion Chief Peter Lawrence said.

The initial call came from a third-floor resident who saw smoke inside the unit. When the first fire crew opened up kitchen and bathroom walls, fire and smoke poured out. Crews found the same thing in the condo directly downstairs and then traced the fire to a first-floor unit below the first two condos, Lawrence said.

More than 300 residents were evacuated from the complex as 55 firefighters from Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista and Encinitas departments spent about an hour tackling the blaze. The crews had to haul more than 500 feet of hoses up several flights of stairs.

Damage to the complex building was $200,000, and residents lost another $60,000 worth of their belongings, Lawrence said.

The second blaze was reported about 8:25 p.m. in a warehouse on Trinity Street near North River Road, authorities said.

With most Oceanside crews busy at the condo fire, firefighters from Camp Pendleton, Vista, Fallbrook, Carlsbad and San Marcos were called in to help. The first crew arrived about 11 minutes later to find the warehouse engulfed in flames and the fire threatening to spread to nearby homes.

Police evacuated the homes. It took 30 firefighters more than an hour to douse the blaze, Battalion Chief Felipe Rodriguez said.

The business was closed for the day when the fire was reported, and the cause remains under investigation.

Damage to the building and contents was about $300,000, Rodriguez said.